'Just like the Loch Ness Monster, you may have heard the rumors about Google Drive. It turns out, one of the two actually does exist,' said the search giant today, confirming the existence of its long-rumoured online storage service.

Drive is a free storage system for videos, photos, documents, PDFs - and will allow users to 'drag and drop' their files direct from PCs or Macs instead of storing them on their own hard drives

The system works with phone
apps on both Androids and devices such as iPhone or iPad.

The Drive service will offer seamless sharing of music, video and documents - and will work with iPads and Macs as well as PCs

Google is expected to launch 'GDrive', an online storage service that will store large files online instead of in PC hard drives this week

GOOGLE DRIVE - WHAT SEARCH GIANT'S NEW SERVICE WILL DO

Google Drive will be offered to Google account holders - ie anyone with a Gmail address, a Google Plus account or a YouTube account. It will be free to use, and offer online storage for any file type.

Google's existing documents is built right into Google Drive, so you can work with others in real time on documents, spreadsheets and presentations.

Once you choose to share content with others, you can add and reply to comments on anything (PDF, image, video file, etc.)

You can install Drive on your Mac or PC and can download the Drive app to your Android phone or tablet. There will also shortly be a Drive app for iPhone and iPad.

It will also work
with Google's current Documents, allowing several users to work together
on a photo album, video or spreadsheet at once.

'You can get started with 5GB of storage for free—that’s enough to store the high-res photos of your trip to the Mt. Everest, scanned copies of your grandparents’ love letters or a career’s worth of business proposals, and still have space for the novel you’re working on,' says Google.

'You can choose to upgrade to 25GB for $2.49/month, 100GB for $4.99/month or even 1TB for $49.99/month.

'When you upgrade to a paid account, your Gmail account storage will also expand to 25GB.'

RELATED ARTICLES

Share this article

Share

Google search will also be a major part of the new service - including the ability to search for text in scanned-in documents.

'Drive can even recognize text in scanned documents using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology. Let’s say you upload a scanned image of an old newspaper clipping. You can search for a word from the text of the actual article,' says Google. 'We also use image recognition so that if you drag and drop photos from your Grand Canyon trip into Drive, you can later search for [grand canyon] and photos of its gorges should pop up.'

Google's London office: The leak suggests several users will be able to collaborate on one document - and share music and video freely

Google
has been widely rumoured to be releasing such a service for weeks - and
rivals have already begun to respond to the 'threat' posed by the
search giant.

Online storage company
Dropbox has made it easier to share content such as videos via its
50-million-user 'cloud' storage service, in advance of the launch of a
rival from web giant Google.

Dropbox has altered its service so users can share simply by sending an emailed link rather than sharing folders.

Microsoft's SkyDrive service has also
been upgraded in advanced of Google's launch, with users able to drag
files into SkyDrive from Windows 7 machines.

'This means that
people who follow your link can see pictures, look at presentations, and
watch home videos without having to download and open them separately.'

Bono performing at Glastonbury: The star has been revealed as an investor in online storage start-up Dropbox

Online storage start-up Dropbox has some high-profile support - U2's Bono and The Edge have personally invested in the company.

Singer
and activist Bono has been a high-level investor in tech companies
through the private equity firm Elevation Partners, of which he is a
co-founder and Managing Director.

The Dropbox investment is the first time Bono has been publicly named as an individual investor in a company.

'Dropbox is excited to welcome Bono
& The Edge as investors. Thanks for the support and look forward to
great things,' said the company in a Tweet this week.

The 'cloud' storage start-up was recently valued at $4 billion.

Services such as Dropbox have become
hugely popular as people increasingly use computers 'on the go' -
offering simple 'cloud' storage where users can access their files from
anywhere via apps or web browsers.

Google's
service is expected to offer 5GB of storage, and appear as an icon on
Windows and Mac desktops into which users simply 'drop' files.

Google
has spoken about launching a 'G Drive' service in the past, but the
company has been tight-lipped on the subject recently.

Videos, documents and music would be stored remotely in Google's data centres, instead of in individual hard drives.

Google Documents already lets users store 1Gb of files online.

Services such as Dropbox have become
hugely popular as people increasingly use computers 'on the go' -
offering simple 'cloud' storage where users can access their files from
anywhere via apps or web browsers.

Dropbox's CEO Drew Houston reportedly turned down a 'nine figure' offer from Apple for the company.

Apple
now offers a similar service, iCloud, which stores music, books, films
and apps online, and is free to all users of iOS 5, the latest version
of its mobile operating service.

Google HQ: Google sources told the Wall Street Journal that the new Drive service was a response to a response to the growth of web-connected devices such as smartphones and tablets, and to 'cloud computing' services which allow people to store files online instead of in PC hard drives

Microsoft also offers similar - but
paid-for - services such as Office365 and its free SkyDrive, previously
aimed at phone users.

Google's
service, though, is likely to be a simple, 'one stop shop' file storage
system like Dropbox's, which allows users to store anything, anywhere.